Our Potty Training Experience

Potty training is not for the weak. I never intended on potty training Caroline before her second birthday, but here we are. I am sharing our (ongoing) potty training experience and the tools that helped us out tremendously!

One evening I was curious about the process and began looking up how to go about it and signs of readiness. She checked off quite a few boxes, so I decided to go ahead and give it a shot the next day.

This is, by no means, a “how to” potty train your kid post. This is simply our experience in potty training Caroline. Even a month in it is still a process and something I have to think about every day. Hopefully our potty training journey can help others feel more confident in training their own kid. It is hard, but I have tried my best to remain consistent and it seems to be paying off.

Signs of Readiness

Caroline had be showing lots of signs of readiness for potty training, maybe more than I realized at first. One that stood out to me the most was when she would wake up with a dry diaper 3 or 4 days out of the week. I also began to notice that she would stay dry during a public outing. I’d take her in the car to go shop or go to lunch and would remain dry for a couple of hours.

We have been putting Caroline on the toilet for quite some time now. Our house had potty training seats on the toilets when we moved in (thanks, Jessica!). The first time I put Caroline on the toilet was around 8 or 9 months. She would toot while taking a bottle, so I put her on the toilet and she actually pooped a time or two! Since she was at least a year old we have been putting her on the toilet to pee before bath every evening.

Caroline had recently started talking about needing to poop. This might have been what sparked me to look more seriously into potty training. Here is a good article with a potty training readiness checklist.

Training

On Day 1 I really had no idea what I was doing. I was following the Moms On Call guidelines for potty training (check out my Moms On Call Review), and was waiting for Potty Training In 3 Days to ship to my house. I actually kept her in a diaper on day 1 and put her on the toilet every two hours. She stayed dry until that evening.

Day 2 started the same way. I put her on the potty as soon as she woke up and she peed and pooped (WOOHOO!). Around lunch I ran to the store to buy training pants, because I did not plan ahead! She stayed dry all day. I was astonished.

By day 3 the book came in and I started getting a little more specific with my method. I began to constantly ask her if she needed to go potty. “Caroline, do you need to potty?” every five minutes it seemed. However, we were invited to a friend’s house that evening and I was craving some adult conversation. At one point I lost track of time and Caroline had an accident in her friend’s playroom (cringe).

Day 4 was rough! She had a total of five accidents. I got very discouraged because she had done so well the first few days. I told myself that we could not go back to diapers (even though I wanted to so bad). This was when I realized I could really use a drink. Obviously, I didn’t have one.

As each day went by we got into a better groove. Caroline would have an accident here or there. On day 5 she went back to daycare. I knew this would be a challenge for her. I made sure to message her teacher the day before sending her back. I was willing to keep her at home for another day but her teacher said to bring her in and pack lots of extra clothes! What a saint.

After just over a week of training I built up the confidence to take Caroline into public without a diaper on. I keep this foldable potty seat in my bag for public outings. It is a LIFESAVER. She has really impressed me with how well she does in public. Granted, we go to a lot of the same places in town so I think that helps.

Poop

If you can’t handle talking about poop you probably wouldn’t have made it this far in the post, so I am going to dive right in. Going poop on the toilet takes a LOT more practice than going pee. We have have our fair share of poop accidents, but I always encourage Caroline to let me know when she needs to go next time. Most of our successful poops on the toilet are a result of me catching her when she needs to go. Sounds difficult, but as a mom, you just know when they need to go (you can see it in their face, lol). I have a stool and a stack of books by the toilet that I will read to Caroline when she is trying to go. The process takes a lot of patience.

First Road Trip

I was crazy enough to make the five hour drive to my parents’ house a couple of weeks ago. I will be honest and say that I was very nervous/anxious about it, but I planned ahead and it honestly went great. Caroline went to the bathroom right before I put her in the car. We do this every time we leave the house. She was wearing training pants with a diaper over them.

You might be wondering why I wouldn’t just put her in a diaper, but there was a method to my madness. I’m not sure if I read it in one of my books or online, but there is muscle memory associated with the feeling of a diaper. When a child feels a diaper they’re reminded that they can potty whenever they need to. The diaper absorbs the moisture, so they don’t feel as wet after they pee. With training pants or underwear, the fabric feels totally different and there is barely any absorption. I did not want Caroline to go back into diaper mode on this trip. I put the diaper on outside of her underwear just in case she had an accident so her car seat would stay dry. You might disagree with this method but it worked for us!

We made our first potty stop after 1.5 hours on the road. I pulled over into a large parking lot and put her on this portable potty in the back of my car. It did not take her long to go. I dumped it out and wiped out the seat with a wet wipe and a paper towel. In hindsight, I should’ve packed some lysol spray, but we made it work. We had a whole potty station in the back of the car.

We stopped next an hour later at Bucee’s and used our foldable potty seat. Before getting to my parents’ house we made one more stop at a gas station.

Have you recently potty trained or are planning to do it soon? Share your experience in the comments, or ask me anything that I might not have included in this post!